As students listen to the guest artist begin they begin to fidget. Some students are shushed and other students roll their eyes. The teachers want the kids to be respectful and sophisticated enough for the main message to come through. As the students realize that the guest artist is sharing about movement…they pine for more opportunity to join in. At last some are invited to stand up and wiggle or wave a scarf. The elephant in the room is ~ WHY HAVEN’T WE ALL BEEN MOVING all along?

Talk therapy, monologues of lessons, car rides daily, entertainment, and homework are all normal activities. They occur without us calculating the amount of time we spend on them. In the past few years I’ve encouraged my kids to identify when they are leveraging their bodies or standing with muscular strength. Because we have become a society of people who sit or stand still for a long period of time we have lost our body’s wisdom. I’m writing about the somatic wisdom that naturally occurs when we are moving and working with our body. It is possible to tilt and lean each bone to leverage the body into balance. When this happens we’re no longer using our muscles. They weaken and atrophy to the point of mush. The result is forgotten wisdom. This is a lesson that I often find myself teaching during a personal training session. YET!! I hadn’t thought about the activity of leveraging and propping students up at their desks to keep them attuned with the words.

Moving with academics is extremely simple to introduce to your class. Simple warm-up exercises from a fitness video can stimulate childrens’ body, mind, and spirit. In order to kindle an excitement in any classroom; I’ve created a short list of activities that will help children, parents, teachers, and all students.

WAYS to MOVE with ACADEMICS:

Teach yourself and your students to distribute their weight. Begin in a seated or standing position and practice lifting a bone with the power of the muscle group under it. For example: Lift the head off the neck. Lift the arms off the chest. Lift the tummy off the hips.

Take a dance break. Allow yourself and your students channel their inner Napoleon Dynamite. Nearly every movie is accented with a freestyle dance break. Let your credits roll and “move it move it” or “minion groove” to My Life.

Turn up the creative station. Ask yourself and your students….if I needed to teach this lesson without the use of my voice or any reading…how would I get the message across? Stand up those students and ask them too. They will know vertical, horizontal, and perpendicular very quickly if you let them figure out how to show it.

If you would like to turn up the creativity on your own I suggest testing yourself. Are you leveraging your way through life or are you standing firm in your body, mind, and spirit? If you would like to see how other great minds, like yours, are figuring this out; check out Science Magazine’s contest, Dance your PhD and the Washington Post article, Why so many kids can’t sit still.

A guest artist is a wonderful place to begin. There are wonderful dance and physical education standards established for our young people. Another wonderful task is to adhere to the suggested dosage of exercise recommended by our doctors. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular movement three times a week. Any attempt to move will give your life a little something worth fighting for. I invite you to move more and consistently everyday!

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This is the month of push for the Moving to Math classes. We’ve worked all year to unlock the minds of our students and help them see the box, measure it, crawl around it, jump in & out of it and transform it into a tool for their personal artistry. We’ll be reviewing and preparing for the testing season that’s coming soon.

There are so many amazing lessons that have been developed among the students, classroom teachers, and myself over the last 4 years of writing the Moving to Math program. I have huge respect and gratitude for several people. It’s time to stop and thank them.

Jane Reifsnyder at Portage Collaborative Montessori School is a source of constant inspiration. She is a dancer at heart and comes up with amazing ideas. She also does a great deal of grant-writing to help my crazy ideas manifest. We are currently working on PUNCTUATING CULTURE THROUGH SONG AND DANCE. Thank you!

Valarie McPhillen from The Arts Academy at Summit is another person whose personal commitment to students has aided my development. It has been comedic to watch her mathematical wizardry come my way. Yes, it’s 4th, 5th, and 6th grade math…but mathematics is an eternal and endless concept. Our planning meetings have been packed full of details and bright ideas. Thank you!

Jennie Albrecht also from The Arts Academy at Summit is a go getter with her students. She taught me that it’s, in fact, very good that I’m tenacious about building a good problem for the students to solve. They can figure out the volume of a big human formation. Thank you!

The last person on the list is the person who planted the seed of what is possible. Ms. Cummings was a music teacher who tried to open the minds of a rural classroom of 4th graders. She offered CREATIVE MOVEMENT once. ONCE. It was her first year of teaching and it really….didn’t…go so well. All the boys were hyper and running around the room like crazy farm boys. Go figure. I was captivated. I stood in the middle of the room…not moving…and watched everyone move around me. Then, I went home and did all the moves I memorized Ms. Cummings performing. Then, I came back to school the next day and began the process of translating every single lesson into a movement. How oddly abstract for a 4th grader!!! It was my thing though.

I did recently look up Ms. Cummings. I thanked her for her creativity. I shared that she wouldn’t remember me. I was a wall-flower – but I appreciated her passion.

This is a guiding value of mine as an instructor. I truly give every class all my energy. I believe that we make more energy when we spend what we have. YOU NEVER KNOW what your students will take home. SO GIVE THEM ALL YOU’VE GOT!

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The Kennedy Center’s Arts Edge cites, “While the concept of arts integration is not new, there is an increased interest and a growing number of programs and schools focusing on arts integration. Why are educators showing this interest? There are two predominant reasons:

1. Arts integration practices are aligned with how students learn. 2. Arts integration energizes teachers by providing increased professional satisfaction.”

It is my joy to offer K-6th grade integrated lessons in Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Science that correspond to the ODE Academic Content Standards through DANCE.

The schools that participated in the Moving to Math program have shown an increased level of proficiency in Mathematics since its design in 2009. Portage Collaborative Montessori School, in fact, reaching the level of Excellence with Distinction within the first year of offering the course. In the 2011-2012 school year Moving to Math students showed an increased fitness level as well.

Learning through movement will bring a captivating motivation to your classrooms this year. This will benefits your students and teachers academically and physically.

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I am getting so excited about the MOVING TO MATHprogram for this year. There are only a few months until my workbook will be completed with new photographs. As I’m planning for the photo-shoot – I brainstormed about WHO will be photographed. There are some great ideas about this for sure because I know a lot of amazing dancers. THEN – the thought occurred to me, “Kimberly, why don’t you select a Moving to Math team?” There are movers every year that get it and are excited and they do it well! These kids can actually travel and perform the knowledge too!! I’m so excited. I will do this!

Here are some fabulous results from last year as well!!! (Don’t worry, I’ll share more data along the way!) From this chart I know that the students who are at risk are becoming healthier. However, the students that are already healthy, while they have enjoyed the class and they have increased academic scores (more coming on that as well), they didn’t experience increased fitness. That’s okay, at this juncture. I will find additional ways to train them too!

This table shows the resting heart rate of new movement students in February and then the ending resting heart rate in May.

The Yellow Class

Starting Finishing

Good 60-69

6

6

Average 70-79

2

8

Fair 80-89

7

5

Poor >89

2

Please pass along the word that I’m scheduling visits with K-6th graders. If you know a teacher that would like to have her class experience MOVING TO MATH! Please let me know!

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This Summer offered a variety of stamina building and endurance training. While the heat was a bummer to most Ohioans…the dancers can stretch farther and train better in the heat. This was something I looked forward to each day.

MOVING TO MATH WORKBOOK DRAFTED:

In the beginning of the summer I met up with Lighthouse Ministries in S.E. Canton to launch their staff with MOVING TO MATH curricula and training. This went well. Best part – I have a full draft completed for my Math workbook. Now, to get good photos this year!

I hope to begin training teachers at the end of this school year. That would be May 2013. The fitness element is the most exiting part to me. The results from last year’s students math proficiency and fitness assessments were good. You can look forward to a full post on that soon.

CHOREOGRAPHED MAGICAL THEATRE KID CAMP:

This choreography experience is one that I’ve come to love. It’s all out live musical theatre. The kids learn to work hard from 9am-4pm. We enjoy their company from 8-5pm. Then, in a short 2 weeks time they learn an entire musical review.

This year it was themed: RADIO. The time – tune – travelers pop in and out of radio decades to bring audience members along. Everything from Jenny’s 867-5309 to War of the Worlds. All kids. Voguing and Kung Fu Fighting.

CAMP NEOSA ARTS CONSERVATORY

Immediately following KID camp – I drove down through the beautiful landscape of Atwood Lake Region in Ohio to Camp Neosa. It is so very beautiful. There, I met 12 art conservation dance students. The instructor Jackie Hemming has been faithfully teaching them and boy, could they groove. They have strong ideas about dance – which I LOVE. The technique class was a challenge, as always, for expressive dancers. But, I saw my favorite action. I love that moment when the dancer discovers that the study of technique is created for them to reach their vision. I look forward to an exciting future for these students.

FIRST FRIENDS DANCE CAMP

This year instead of PRINCESS CAMP…I chose to launch the summer dance camp. It’s not that I got tired of pink…but I believed it was time. The students ranged from age 3-15. Classes in technique were given and also Hip-Hop. Students learned about DIRECTIONAL DANCES. There is actually a movement scale designed by Rudolf Laban. Similarly to DO, RAE, ME, FA, SO, LA, TE, DO…Up, Down, Side,Side, Front, Back, and Diagonal.

What’s NEXT??

It is that time again! Time to gear up for the school year to begin. My plans are to continue at Akron Public Schools with the after-school Hip-Hop Dance Classes. I expect great things from myself this Fall as a teaching artist. It is time to book your classroom!!!

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Setting the stage for learning Moving to Math today at Belden Elementary School. Amazing opportunity to work with young people this summer through Lighthouse Ministries. Lesson one includes getting the students used to thinking about Geometry as they dance.

“I started with Kimberly at a time when I was in so much pain I was not able to function well. I didn’t know it at the time but my core was so weak that things were prolapsing inside causing major bladder pain. This condition had persisted on and off for years. I even went through ultrasounds to see what was wrong. After Kimberly laid out a program for me, I faithfully applied her exercises on an hourly basis in the beginning. By the next day I was mostly out of pain! Within one week, she noticed how much stronger I was. I continue faithfully everyday for my health and well-being. I am so thankful for Kimberly and her knowledge to help me enjoy life again!” ~A.A. from Uniontown, Ohio